2022 G2E Asia Moved to Singapore amid China’s COVID-19 Outbreak

Global Gaming Expo Asia’s organizers have decided to move the hosting location for its 2022 event. Instead of it taking place in Macau, the new host will be Singapore. Previously, G2E Asia has been postponed a few times to China’s zero COVID policy, which makes it impossible for foreigners to enter the special administrative region.

G2e Asia Will Take Place at Marina Bay Sands in August

G2E Asia organizers have selected Marina Bay Sands as the hosting venue for the event that will take place from August 24 to August 26. This is yet another massive achievement for Marina Bay Sands. Back in February, Las Vegas Sands announced a $1 billion reinvestment plan for the venue.

According to Reed Exhibitions, the organizers of the event, this will be a one-time affair and the show will come with a special name, “G2E Asia Special Edition: Singapore.”

The main reason why Singapore was chosen to be the hosting location for the 2022 G2E Asia is that the country has lifted almost all restrictions related to COVID-19. The only thing that foreigners need to do in order to enter the country is to provide a negative test that is not older than 48 hours.

Thanks to the loosened restrictions, the number of foreigners that started entering Singapore began to surge. According to the Singapore Tourism Board, the number of visitors in January and February was 57,000 and 67,760, respectively. That represents a YoY increase of 273% and 144%.

Keith Tan, the chief executive of STB, stated that the numbers show that the demand for short-term visits to Singapore is now healthy.

Thanks to the pretty stable city-state, the organizers of G2E Asia, the American Gaming Association (AGA), and Reed Exhibitions, did not give too much thought to the process and hence, selected Marina Bay Sands, which was opened in 2010. The Meetings, Incentives, Conventions, Events facilities at this venue have around 1.3 million square feet of event space that can be customized.

COVID-19 Has Caused a Lot of Problems for g2e Asia since 2019

G2E Asia was established in 2007 and its last exhibition took place in May 2019. The pandemic caused a lot of disruption for the 2020 event. After being postponed 3 times, organizers decided to call it off.

Then, the 2021 edition was scheduled to take place in May 2021, but it was postponed until August. The pandemic caused another delay and after it became clear that it is nearly impossible for the event to be held, it was called off.

The 2022 edition was also a bit rocky. G2E organizers wanted Macau to be the host, but the pandemic restrictions caused it to be delayed from May to August. China was hit by another outbreak and that is when Reed Exhibitions and AGA decided to move to Singapore. This is the first time that the G2E Asia exhibition is not held in Macau.